Album Review

Sparrow and the Workshop – Devil Song/ The Cold Hearted Twist

• 17th May 2009

This forthcoming double A-side from Glasgow-based three-piece Sparrow and the Workshop starts ominously with the haunting male/female harmony of Devil Song, a capella but for a sparely strummed acoustic, which, when joined by rhythm section, proceeds to break headlong into an up-tempo country sound that gallops along thrillingly like something out of an old Western. The gorgeous harmony keeps right on over it all, towards a blistering climax. It’s an intense affair at just under three minutes long that evades easy definition.

“The Cold-Hearted Twist” is gentler on the conventional ear. Jill O’Sullivan really can belt them out and the tastefully sparing instrumental arrangement with its plodding bassline lets her shimmering vocals win the day. Two songs of terrific quality that sound like very little else out there at the moment mark Sparrow and the Workshop as newcomers of some promise.